A wealth of riches has been discovered under Afghanistan. Iron, copper, cobalt, gold, and lithium are mentioned. Other valuable minerals often exist where these are found, but the amount of the identified materials is reported to be very large. There are seven major tectonic blocks in the country, so there is an assortment of different geologic histories and interactions to produce an assortment of deposits.

DNA traces of mammoths have been detected in Alaska. "Sedimentary ancient DNA" (sedaDNA) was found in permafrost containing material from 11,000 to 7,000 years ago. This indicates that some mammoths survived the extinction event 13,000 years ago which wiped out many large mammals across North America.

Former UCLA professor Phil Agre is missing and his sister has filed a missing person report. He abandoned his apartment and job months ago. The Chronicle of Higher Education also has reported on this. He had a popular mailing list, the Red Rock Eaters News Service until 2005 and is a privacy expert. Ironically, this privacy expert is a board member of EPIC and people are using electronic media such as Facebook and a web site to spread the word and try to contact him.

Experimenters found that they could produce red minerals without using water. Grinding minerals caused a red coloration. What causes the changes is unknown. The process also happens in a dry carbon dioxide atmosphere, so it is possible that the red coloration on Mars is not due to rust.

NewsBusters points out that the ousted Honduran president had voting results for an election which was never held. Former president Zelaya violated the Constitution by proposing staying in office longer, and he wanted voters to approve the proposal. He was ousted before the election was held, but babalú blog pointed out that a Catalan newspaper [spanish] reported that computers were found in the presidential palace with votes for the nonexistent election. About 45 computers are involved. The type of computers and their software have not been mentioned.

The Sunday Express reports that misplaced video recordings from Apollo 11 have been found. These tapes had the highest quality recordings, having been made from the transmission from the Moon which was then compressed for satellite relay to the United States. New images will be released next month.
(Update July 18 2009: That report was wrong. Only TV video is being restored. The original tapes were reused, although two hours of test tapes are still missing.)

Researchers have found that smoke from the gun which hit Tunguska was noticed. They noticed that noctilucent clouds were formed after Space Shuttle launches dumped water vapor in the upper atmosphere. The same clouds were reported after the Tunguska impact. The Space Shuttle's water vapor is transported to polar regions within a day (it is not known how such rapid motion takes place). After the Tunguska event, the skies over Europe were bright for several nights, which the researchers believe were due to noctilucent clouds high in the atmosphere, caused by water from a comet released at Tunguska.

Universe Today points out in "The Curious Case of the Shrinking Star" that Betelgeuse has shrunk by about 15%. This is a short-lived red giant star with a short lifetime, so shrinkage might mean the star is shrinking as it starts using more complex elements as fusion fuel, but when it runs out of usable fuel it is expected to collapse into a nova or supernova. As it is 600 light years away, we should be safe from even a supernova. Unless you're standing in the way of an excited astronomer.

The BBC reports that the United States lost a nuclear bomb in 1968 in the North Atlantic ice. After the bits of crashed aircraft and bombs were picked up from the ice, one bomb was still missing. A submarine failed to find it under the ice. It's still somewhere out there, adding to the ocean's minerals until it gets buried.